SECRETARY'S REPORT

Minutes from the January 7, 2007 meeting held at Canine Mastery in Seekonk, MA.

Members Present

Jean Janotta, Dottie Duclos, Pete Dolan, Gull Reidy, Brenda Dean,  Kathie Chouinard, Keli Gaunt, Janet Steeger, Lyn Scribner, Susan Winters, Kaylene Scotton, Dennis Witham, Robin Gardell, Karen Miller, Lorretta King, Donna Hakala, Ann Chace, Debra Keach-Tomes, Paula Andrus, Kathy Buckley, Dianne McCormick, Don McCormick, John Andrade, Lisa Andrade, Donna Johnson, Sharon Ruppel, Cindy Booth, Kelly Dalke, Heather Braddock, Diane Johnson,  Robin Goodman, Dianne Barrett

Guests present:

Jim Helems, Don Kipp

President Jean Janotta called the meeting to order at 12:25 pm with a Happy New Year and thanks for making the trip, followed by introductions.

Secretary's Report – Gull Reidy

>Acceptance of the minutes from the November 5, 2006 meeting at Dr. Matt Mason's will be held until the March meeting as many members had not yet received their NEA newsletter.

Treasurer's Report – Dottie Duclos

• the treasurer's report was approved as follows:
• Seekonk - November 11 & 12, 2006 - income $2240.50;  expenses - $2245.20, loss $4.70
• ASCNE Treasury - $23801.70
• Rescue Treasury - $2740.54
• Nationals Account as of 11/5/06 - $10845.25
• receipts - WASCUNY  pre-national agility  $500.00; vendor deposit - 25.00;
• expenses - deposit for sheep $1000.00; printed check order  $63.23;
• balance as of 1/7/07 - $10307.02

Affiliate Report - Sheila Dolan

• Representative not present, but Pete Dolan had some information. 
• Championship points have been sorted out, and defined as to how points are accumulated.
• The ASCA Board had a motion to set up a Nationals committee that would take a member with nationals experience from each committee to write up guidelines for hosting a National.
• The Board voted to send the stock dog working description back to the stock dog committee for more definition of what it is and where it should be used.
• The Board has formalized that each standing committee will be responsible for making updates to the rule book for their area of responsibility. 
• Stock dog committee voted to use qualifying and non-qualifying scores when determining who makes the merit list.

ASCA Board of Directors Report - Linda Gray - representative not present

• Linda forwarded a draft copy of the December ASCA BOD minutes

Committee Reports - no representatives present

Library Report - Cindy King - representative not present

Sunshine Report - Jean Janotta

• We received a thank you card from Richard Natale's family - a donation was sent to the Richard Natale Memorial Fund.
• A sympathy card was sent to Sheila Polk on the death of her husband, Jim Polk.
• A card will be sent to Pam Parker on the loss of her mother in December to cancer
• A card will be sent to Emmy Adasiewicz who had laser surgery on one leg and is awaiting surgery on the second leg.
• A card will be sent to Wendy Dryer who also had surgery.

Event Updates:

• Agility trial - February 17 & 18 - Amherst, NH - Jean Janotta - Katrin Andberg is judging, the trial is full to the brim
• Annual Meeting & ROM - March 4 - Log Cabin, Holyoke, MA - MaryAnn & Joe Stoddart - must be coming along fine, have not heard otherwise
• Winter Warm Up and Rescue Show - March 16, 17 & 18 - Taunton, MA - Brenda Dean / Sue Winters - is going well, Obedience is Sunday afternoon only, Breed is Friday pm, Saturday am and pm and Sunday am.  They need 2 Junior Judges and donations for the Chinese Auction.
• Cattle clinic with Cindi Hayden - March 31 - April 1 - Webster, >NH - Matt Mason – flyer available for anyone interested; will be going up on the web as well
• Summer Colors of Harvest Moon - June 9 & 10 - Auburn, MA - Peter Kontos
  • Peter Kontos will be the show chair this year
  • the plan is a Conformation show on Friday, 2 Conformation shows on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, Obedience on Saturday and Sunday. 
  • Peter would like to hire 2 breed judges from east of the Mississippi.
• Stock Trial - June 23 & 24 - Matt Mason - hopefully Rick Hardin will be able to fulfull his judging assignment from last year
• Moose-a-Mania - July 27, 28 & 29 - has been cancelled for 2007 because of the proximity time-wise to the Nationals.  Clara has requested 2008 dates at Skowhegan.  Jean has contacted the CPE club to tell them we will be having ASCA agility when MAM resumes in 2008.
• Breed and Obedience - November - Seekonk, MA - Sharon Ruppel volunteered to be Show Chair as Fran Swanson will not be doing it this year.

OLD BUSINESS

New Members – Kathie Chouinard

• Melissa Ferguson & Tom Miceli from Bristol, CT and Heidi Babb from Webster, NH are being held over pending ASCA membership numbers. 
• The applications for Jessica  Maddore and Ashley Tenesicy (Jrs) are being dropped.      

2007 ASCA Nationals - Augusta, NJ - September 29 - October 6, 2007 – Pete Dolan

• The website is ascagoldenjubilee.com
• The premium is posted on the Nationals website and will be in the March/April issue of the Aussie Times. 
• The stockdog and agility budgets have been submitted to the ASCA Board.  ASCA is financially responsible for the Stockdog Finals but Agility and Obedience Finals need to be self sufficient based on entry fees. 
• Robin Gardell is the new trophy chair if anyone has any ideas for trophies.  Robin had pictures and samples of some of the trophy ideas for the Nationals.
• There is a venue chair meeting next Saturday (January 13) at the Benson's in CT.  The main discussions will be about ribbons, trophies and budgets. 
• There are 125 people on the yahoo group.  The file section has pictures of the fairgrounds.  The pictures will be on the website soon. 
• Robin Goodman had her laptop with pictures taken at one of the meetings at the fairgrounds.
• There are 3 people bidding on cows, we have sheep and ducks. 
• The budget will be near $225,000.  Anyone can propose sponsors to help defray the cost.  The next thing to go on the website will be class sponsorship sheets.  If we sell every one it will raise $30,000.

ASCNE website – Robin Goodman

• The ASCNE website has been shut down since Friday due to the extended use of a temporary domain name
• The website should be up and running this week.  In the interim you can use www.ascne.org/index.htm. 
• Robin Goodman is now the official owner of the domain name. 
• You can send fliers and information to Robin.  The old website is no longer up to date and the re-route is also wrong.

New ASCNE ROM proposal – Jean Janotta

Versatility/Performance Proposal

Because the ROM is a program that affects all members, it was thought that everyone should be able to discuss and vote on potential changes.   The ASCA and ASCNE requirements for versatility and performance do not match.  They are not required to, however Sheila Dolan made a proposal to bring ASCNE's awards more in line with ASCA's.  The proposal (included in the last and this issue of the NEA) was distributed to facilitate discussion.  A lot of discussion followed.  Some points of concern were:  acknowledging dogs that did well but did not have the opportunity to do stock, acknowledging dogs who did well but were not going to meet the conformation requirements.  Some points of ASCNE's ROM requirements are:  dogs are only allowed one ROM award,  ASCNE's awards do not have to be certain levels (such as a Started duck leg or an Open agility Q), points have not been implemented in calculations for the Versatility or Performance ROMS so far.  

Inclusion of Pre-National/National Points for ROM

The discussion on not using the Nationals and pre-shows was because it was felt a lot of people didn't get the chance to go to the Nationals and competing against such a large number of dogs at one show made the calculations unfair.  Some people felt that winning at the Nationals was harder and you should be rewarded for doing so well.  ROM calculations for 2006 will still use the Nationals and pre-shows.  There was confusion with members over the implementation date of not including pre-National and National points for ROM from the September minutes - Jean will check with MaryAnn about waiving the 30 day period because of the rule change notice in the September newsletter.  For ASCNE shows, you do not have to submit your ROM points.  You do have to submit your information for non-ASCNE shows.

The policy on number of dogs beat for calculation of points also needs to be clarified and addressed.  Most of the ROM's do not use number of dogs beat for their calculations, although Conformation does. 

New Type of ROM Award

It was asked if we have a lifetime achievement type award for dogs that do well over a period of time, but not necessarily all in one year.  Another suggestion was for another level of ROM for dogs that earned titles, not just legs.   If people are interested in forming a group to put together proposals, see Jean.  It was also asked if the rules should allow a clause if Rally ever becomes an ASCNE program.  Jean felt in that case it would only need some tweaking.

March meeting items

Proposed ROM Versatility/Performance Change for voting

Versatility - The dog/bitch must be shown in Conformation, Stock and 1 other event: Tracking, Obedience or Agility in the calendar year and receive qualifying scores/winners, reserve, best of breed, or best opposite sex to qualify for the award.

Performance - The dog/bitch must be shown in Stock and 2 other venues: Tracking, Obedience or Agility in the calendar year and must receive qualifying scores in Stock and the other 2 venues to qualify for the award.  (Requires a qualifying leg on Stock and removes conformation as a performance event)

Achievement - The dog/bitch must receive qualifying scores/winners, reserve, best of breed, or best opposite sex in at least 3 of the following venues in the calendar year to qualify for the award:  Conformation, Stock, Tracking, Obedience or Agility.

Inclusion/exclusion of points earned at pre-National and National events

Other ROM award proposals

Honorary Membership Committee – Jean Janotta

• Peter Kontos has found some preliminary documentation on criteria for selection of individuals for Honorary Memberships.  Anyone interested in being on the committee should contact Jean.

New Membership Secretary – Jean Janotta

• Kathie Chouinard will be stepping down from this position.  Several people expressed an interest and Kathie met with them after the meeting to discuss details. 

AKC Conflict of Interest Policy – Sue Winters

• Sue Winters received a notice from Front and Finish that AKC will be voting on the issue and there is a possibility that it will be reversed.  This will affect the  companion venues, such as Obedience, but not Confirmation at this time.

Rescue Contacts in Recent Newsletter – Jean Janotta

• The rescue contact list provided to George Griffin for inclusion in the September and November NEA was incorrect.  The correct list has been forwarded to George, Sheila, and Robin and has been updated on ASCNE-l.

NEW BUSINESS

Membership Applications - Kathie Chouinard

Ring gates                                             

• The ring gates used at Harvest Moon are still in the shed at the Westfield Fairgrounds.  Keli Gaunt will pick them up and transport to Kelly Dalke, then Karen Miller said she could take them to the Nationals where they will be used next.

Bowl call - Karen Miller

• Karen Miller will be doing bowls again this year for ASCNE member's dogs earning ASCA titles in 2006.  Email Karen with the dog's exact name and the title earned by February 1 to receive your bowl at the ROM banquet.

GSASA Schedule – Jean Janotta

The following show schedule information was received from GSASA:

• March 3^rd/4th in Andover, NJ  - double conformation shows - all breeder judges - Emmy Adasiewicz, Bruce Caldwell, Terri Altergott and Amy Burdette.
• March 10th and 11th in Flanders NJ. - double obedience shows – judges Bob Apap, both shows on the 10th and Mary Griffith, both shows on the 11th.
• April 21st/22nd  - trying hard to set a date for our 1st ASCA only agility trial
• May 12^th/13th in Warwick, NY - joining NYASA to co-host 4 conformation shows and 4 obedience shows (Mothers Day weekend).  Scheduled conformation judges are Deb St Jacque, Andrea Blizzard, Marcy Zingler and Don Carlough.  Deb St Jacque and Don Carlough will also judge obedience on the 12th and Diane Cohn will judge both obedience shows on the 13th. 
• These will be some of the last shows in the ASCA year to obtain points and scores for nationals.

Breeder referral - Susan Winters

• A form will be on the website and a note will go to ASCNE-l that breeder referrals are due.

Alcohol at shows

• Jean has been getting emails from members about alcohol at shows.  The BOD met and decided it was not the responsibility of the ASCNE BOD to adjudicate personal conflicts.  If anyone has an issue with something at a show, that issue should be addressed in a timely manner (30 day period, similar to expense submission).   In specific regards to alcohol, each site's request will be followed.  The Show/Trial Chair will be responsible for announcing on the flier if there is a "no alcohol" policy.  Inappropriate behavior by a member of the show committee should be brought to the attention of the BOD in a timely manner.

Achievements

• Karen Miller's 12 year old girl Mariners Periwinkle has earned her CD
• Dianne McCormick's Willie got her CD
• Donna Johnson's Briarcliff Classic Jewel (Stryker) went HIT both days at NY Lake Effects show which earned him his CD
• Kathy Buckley's Wish was HIT and HIT Aussie at the November show
• Robin Goodman's Dani was HIT and HIT Aussie at the November show

The meeting was adjourned at 1:50pm.

The next meeting will be March 4, 2007at the Log Cabin Restaurant in Holyoke, MA.

Respectfully submitted,

Gull Reidy, Secretary